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SCIENCE AND EDUCATION PRIORITIES AT 



THE U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE (USDA) 



Statement to the Subcommittee on Department Operations and Nutrition 



Committee on Agriculture 



U. S. House of Representatives 



Mr. Chairman and members of the Subcommittee, I am C. Peter Magrath, President of 

 the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges, (NASULGC). I am very 

 pleased to have this opportunity to participate in these hearings regarding science and education 

 priorities at the U. S. Department of Agriculture. As president of NASULGC, whose 

 membership includes all 73 land-grant universities, I wish to convey our deep concern for the 

 future of the science and education programs in research, extension and education, and for 

 strengthening the long-standing collaborative USDA/land-grant partnership that has served 

 America so well for more than a century. As pointed out recently by columnist George Anthan 

 of the Des Moines Sunday Register, "Our Agriculture Department, especially its research and 

 extension functions, are the envy of the world." 



Both the United States and the world, and therefore the environment in which the land- 

 grant universities and the U.S. Department of Agriculture operate, have changed dramatically 

 since the early fruition of the land-grant university movement For one thing, American 

 agriculture today has totally changed so that less than two percent of our citizens are directly 

 involved in production agriculture. The very success of the scientific revolution in agriculture, 

 led by the land-grant universities in close collaboration with and significant support from 

 Congress through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has made archaic and unnecessary many 

 of the practices and structures of the old or traditional land-grant model. However, the basic 

 principle—pioneering basic research in agricultural science, the application of science to the 

 problems of food, environment and renewable resources, dissemination of knowledge through the 

 Cooperative Extension System— all remain relevant. 



As we are so well aware, the United States faces massive problems converting from a 

 substantially defense-driven economy, while at the same time adjusting to the new realities of 

 world trade and competition, reinvigorating its industrial competitiveness, dealing with the 

 massive problems of education and addressing major environmental and infrastructure needs. 



Such consequential political and economic transformations challenge all of us to look 

 closely at the mission, structure, and constituencies of our organization. It occurs to me that the 

 U.S. Department of Agriculture and land-grant universities, again, have both an opportunity and 

 a need in common. It is the opportunity and need to redefine our constituencies— to identify the 

 sectors of our citizenry for whom we have the capacity to improve their quality of life. Certainly 

 that includes farmers and ranchers. It also includes a significant number of others who live in 



